


Star Trek: USS Prometheus - Knowledge Equals Profit

by Sinister_Coffin



Series: Star Trek: USS Prometheus [1]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Caitians, F/F, Gen, tumblr refugee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-09-07 01:44:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16844629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinister_Coffin/pseuds/Sinister_Coffin
Summary: Sometime in the future the crew of the USS Prometheus, an aging but still effective Nebula-class, takes the first steps in exploring the Delta Quadrant. Commanded by Captain Nog, formerly of Deep Space 9, the young but talented crew will face challenges both new and old. In exploring space, they will learn about each other, and find the deeper meaning of their Captain's ethos: Knowledge Equals Profit.It is a new era for the Alpha Quadrant. The Federation, it's allies, and Starfleet, have been changed by history and those that learned from it.[I first started this fic on tumblr because I was watching DS9 and thinking aobut Nog's hints at alternative meanings of profit, and imagined him as a captain that sees profit very differently, in a way that strongly aligns with Starfleet's ethos.





	1. Knowledge Equals Profit

[The soft purr of Catian speech comes on over the faint background noises of an active Starfleet bridge.]  
__  
“Science Officer’s Log, Stardate: 57128.54, Science Officer M’Rell, reporting.  
__  
The USS Prometheus is now beginning her first foray into the Delta Quadrant. After picking up new specialist crew at Deep Space 18, we are finally ready. Our Prometheus may be old, but in this scientist's opinion, there’s no vessel more suited to deep space research than the Nebula-class.  
  
_And in my personal opinion, there’s no Captain more suited to our mission, than Captain Nog.”_  
  
M’Rell’s tail twitched in amusement as she heard yet another soft cackle from the direction of the command chair. They’d been scanning the stellar nebula all morning and, instead of sitting in his ready room and waiting for news, the Captain was on the bridge engaged in his favorite pastime, calculating profit.  
  
“Um…Lieutenant.” Came a whisper from her left. It was Ensign Yadav, an Ekosian, dark-skinned, highly intelligent, and as green as M’Rell’s tail was long. And M’Rell was very proud of her _very_ long tail.  
  
“Yes, Ensign?” M’Rell didn’t take her eyes off the scan readouts, but her ear twitched towards the Ensign attentively.   
  
“What…uhm…..what is he doing?”  
  
“Calculating profit, of course. The Captain _is_ Ferengi after all.”  
  
“But…” Yadav glanced down at her console, ensuring the sensor arrays maintained precise alignment, before continuing. “He is going to make any latinum off of scans of a pretty common type of stellar nebula. I think that might actually be illegal.”  
  
“Would you care to answer that, Captain?” M’Rell purred.  
  
“Glad to.” Said Captain Nog, from behind Yadav.   
  
Yadav fairly squeaked and turned to stammer before he held up a hand for quiet. She went silent in an instant. The Captain was diminutive, but he had presence when he wanted to have it.  
  
“Two hundred and ninety four petabytes of data.” He said, adopting his usual, professorial tone for instructing green ensigns. “My personally projected result of this nebula exploration. That alone might not justify our expenditures, it is, so far, not a very unique nebula. Unique in it’s particular way, but not by a large margin. Yet, we have more than sensors. Don’t we, Ensign. What might those be?”  
  
“Uhm….computer models?”  
  
“Yes. And?”  
  
“Analytic programs?”  
  
“Mere tools.”  
  
“Specialist personnel?”  
  
“Precisely, dozens of profit multipliers. Small papers, refined analysis data, all feeding into a large body of knowledge, feeding larger models and going out to more experts. The knowledge generated by a day or two here becomes part of a great library-”  
  
**FWABOOM!  
**   
His speech was suddenly interrupted as the ship shuddered under and impact that rocked the hull. Nog was nearly thrown to the deck as M’Rell’s crash harness deployed automatically.  
  
“Report!” Nog ordered as he struggled to reach his chair.  
  
“Sudden gravimetric sheer!” The helm officer responded as the Prometheus continued to rock and shudder. “It’s dragging us into the nebula! I’m coming about!”  
  
“Belay that!” Nog ordered as he reached his chair. “ Don’t fight, turn and follow it. Then shift us off it’s course gradually until we reach the edge.”  
  
“Like a riptide.” The helmsman realized aloud as he maneuvered the ship, “Let it drag you while swimming to the edge of the flow.” In a few moments the ship was no longer rocking. The view screen showed massively distorted view of the stars, like being at a very low and oddly formed warp.  
  
“Exactly, a little trick I learned visiting an old friend on Earth.”  
  
“Stars and Hells! What is going on?” First Officer Commander Mudell, a stocky Bolian woman, demanded as she arrived on the bridge.   
  
“Gravimetric riptide.” M’Rell reported. “It grabbed us the instant we touched the edge. Sensors indicate we’re moving at about….warp three point eight.”  
  
“Confirmed.” Added the helm, “Looks like our course is taking us through the nebula.”  
  
“Shields are holding. All sections reporting minimal casualties, some bumps and bruises is all.” Ops reported.  
  
“In that case, lets see where this takes us. Helm, just ride the current.” Nog ordered, grinning.  
  
“Oh no.” Mudell lamented. “You’re going to do it again.”  
  
“The riskier the road…” Nog started.  
  
“The greater the profit!” Finished over half the bridge crew.  
  
Mudell sighed as she strode over to the science section to look over Yadav’s readouts. “You’re all mad.”  
  
“Yes they are, ma’am.” Yadav replied instantly, then looked shocked that she’d said it.  
  
Mudell chuckled, “Well I see at least a few of the new crew haven’t been infected by the Captain’s madness yet. I suppose the second officer fully support this course of action?”  
  
“Naturally.” M’Rell replied with a faint chuff of amusement.   
  
“Star protect these fools and lunatics.” Mudell prayed with a sigh before straitening up. “Assessments confirmed. Stand down to Yellow Alert. All stations maintain ready status.”  
  
The klaxons stopped and the red alert lights switched to yellow as Mudell went to her chair next to Nog. They began quietly discussing options and possibilities. Finally Nog spoke up.  
  
“Do we have contact with Starfleet?” He asked.  
  
“Minimal communications, sir.” Ops reported.  
  
“Appraise them of our status and inform them we’ll be following this riptide phenomenon for as long as it is safe to do so.”  
  
“Aye sir, sending message. We should get a reply within the hour.”  
  
“Good. Keep them updated. I want all sensor arrays active, but don’t sacrifice shields or engines to support active scanning. Ready ten probes as well. I have a few ideas. Get me a preliminary report on this phenomenon within the next quarter hour. I’ll be in my ready room.”  
  
He strode off the bridge and stopped for a moment, looking out onto his busy bridge crew and whispered, low enough that only M’Rell heard it. “Very profitable.”


	2. An Ocean of Profit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a long day on the bridge, Lieutenant M'Rell spends an evening with her wife in their quarters. Afterward, her contented sleep is interrupted by a Red Alert.....

M’Rell yawned as she entered her quarters, a sometimes disturbing thing for many humanoids to witness, wide open jaws revealing a predators fangs. She tended to try and avoid it while on the bridge. As the doors hissed closed her wife, F’Min, emerged from their small work station in the next room.

“Sounds like a long day.” F’Min commented, striding across the room to wrap her arms around M’Rell.

M’Rell purred wordlessly as she rested her head on her wife’s shoulder. A full head taller than her and most other Catians, F’Min’s powerful arms comforted and calmed her. It had been a long day on the bridge, but with the gravitic rip-tide showing no signs of ending, Commander Mudell had decided to move forward with the shift-change.  
  
“Lets get you out of those clothes.” F’Min said, and started undressing her.

M’Rell cooperated as her doting wife undressed her, led her to the bed, and began brushing her. All the low friction, breathable, high tech fabrics in the galaxy couldn’t make up for having your fur compressed against your skin by a uniform all day. M’Rell hardly noticed it after 7 years in Starfleet, except at the end of the day when relief came in the form of a soft brush and an attentive wife.  
  
“Your mane is coming in beautifully.” M’Rell noted through her purring.  
  
“It is.” F’Min agreed. “By next week, every woman on the ship will be jealous. It’s truly a pity our males don’t have this. Imagine, gloriously maned boys, with their fine features and long tails.”  
  
“Truly a paradise.” M’Rell agreed. “Then you’ll be returning to the lab early?”  
  
“My final injection was today. The transition is complete.” F’Min confirmed.  
  
“Mmm…then you’ll be just in time to start the deep analysis of this anomaly.”  
  
“I’ve seen the shipwide reports. It sounds fascinating.”  
  
“You haven’t been working while on medical restriction have you?”  
  
“The doctor cleared me for desk duty, love, and my physical therapy is far more strenuous. Besides, I’ve just been planning out work assignments. I can’t just lay about and do nothing. I’ll get restless.” She set the brush aside and stretched out atop M’Rell, whispering in her ear, “And you know how I get when I’m restless.”  
  
“Mmmmm…yes, I do.” M’Rell purred. "I like it when you get restless." But before she could make her move, F’Min stood.  
  
“But before that, dinner.” And she strode off to the kitchen, tail waving enticingly as M’Rell watched.  
  
Later…..  
  
M’Rell lay in bed, dozing in a state of deep satisfaction, when suddenly a heavy impact rocked the ship. She jolted upright and was scrambling out of bed for her clothes as the klaxons went off.  
  
“Red Alert. Senior officers to the bridge.”  
  
Being rudely awakened by alert klaxons and the first officer’s voice was a less than ideal bookend to M’Rell’s perfect evening with her wife. She hissed at the ceiling before scrambling out of bed to dress....  
  
...."Report!" Captain Nog ordered as he and M'Rell entered the bridge together.

"Three probes registered sudden catastrophic impacts." Mudell reported, "We barely had time to route emergency power to the shields before we hit...whatever this is."  
  
"It appears to be a...pressure boundary." Yadav added as M'Rell took the station next to her.   
  
"Confirmed." M'Rell scanned her instruments, "We seem to have reached the end of the riptide, but...this is not normal space. I read nebular gasses, water, organic material, life forms...." She studied the readings more closely, wrinkling her nose in a perplexed expression.  
  
"Lieutenant?" Nog prompted.  
  
"Captain, this zone should not exist. The density of gas is like that of a jovian body, but there is no gravity source. It should be collapsing to one or several gravity well, but I'm reading no such source. Something is preventing the gasses from coalescing."  
  
"Captain, I'm receiving a transmission, audio only." Ops reported.  
  
"Put it on."  
  
The sound that came through the com system sounded, and felt, like the most ethereal music M'Rell had ever heard. Long slow notes overlapped. Harmonics blended, faded, and returned. There seemed no end to them but when M'Rell looked at her scans, she realized there were dozens of sources, transmitting in ways nobody could hear. It was like a communications signal, a song, and a scanning signal all in one.  
  
"Well now, I'd say things just got interesting." Nog said, and M'Rell didn't have to see his expression to know he had that particular gleam in his eyes. The kind of gleam most Ferengi got when facing down a mountain of latinum. "Have all science teams report to their stations. I want to know _everything_ about this phenomenon."


	3. The Mother of Invention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew of the USS Prometheus[Nebula Class] begins to explore the strange phenmenon they've been pulled into.
> 
> [Warning: This chapter contains a whole lot of science bullshittery in it's purest form.]

M'Rell eyed her captain at the head of the briefing table. He still had that gleam in his eye, as they waited for the other section heads to arrive. The same gleam he'd had when she'd met him teaching command classes at the academy, and he'd share stories about his days at Deep Space 9 with Captain Sisko, Worf, Kira Nerys, the trill Dax, Chief O'Brian, Doctor Bashir, and the rest. That gleam that'd prompted her to request _this_ post when Command had given command of the newly refitted _Prometheus_ to Nog. That gleam reflecting a unrelenting thirst for knowledge and discovery that helped turn skeptical, more _traditional,_ officers into loyal crew ready to follow the diminutive man into any anomaly they came across. Even Commander Mudell, for all her complaints of adventurism, would follow him to the other side of the galaxy if there was something to be learned from it.

Finally everyone arrived and began delivering reports. Routine reports came first, per the Captain's policy. The ship's doctor, the counselor, and Mudell all reported on the crew and general ship's functioning, and there were no special medical or disciplinary reports today. Communications with Starfleet were cut off at the moment, but that was nothing too strange in deep space. The small outbreak of Aphasiatic Flu, while inconvenient to it's victims and their language centers, had finally burned out in the midst of ship-wide inoculations.

Engineering reported all systems operating at peak efficiency. The gaseous contents of the anomaly were highly corrosive, but the upgraded hull of the _Prometheus_ wasn't likely to degrade any time soon. Even without maintenance, they estimated the first hull breach was likely to occur in about a century at least. 

M'Rell's own report on the composition indicated not just a nutrient rich environment, but the strange nebula seemed to be positively teeming with life.

"And not just simple life." She continued, "We've detected large, complex organisms, diverse in size. Though scanning is somewhat difficult, and we've been careful to avoid using strong active scans so as not to disturb the environment too much. We don't know enough about zone to do more, and as experience has taught past vessels, recklessly scanning at full power can have adverse effects."

"Such as attracting large, hungry predators the size of dreadnoughts." Mudell was always willing to cut right to the worst-case scenario. "To say nothing of polarizing the hull or, stars forbid, raising shields."

"Or harming the native life." M'Rell added, and continued, "The zone we've entered is something very like an ocean. There are currents, pressure zones, large solid bodies of what we suspect are zero-gravity reefs. And we seem to be very close to what could be called the surface. Particle density is not uniformly distributed. We are currently in the lowest density zone we've been able to detect, and there are high-density zones nearby."

"Fascinating. Just, astonishing, really." Captain Nog grinned as he took the report in, eyeing the mapping data M'Rell's team had assembled so far. "As so, much like an ocean, what we do here could have far reaching effects."

"Yes, sir, we need to minimize our effect on the environment, not just to study it, but to preserve it. To that end I've ordered minimal use of thrusters for station keeping relative to our point of entry, and a hold on impulse engines, emergency use only." Mudell said. "It's possible this ecosystem is extremely robust and resistant to new elements. Who knows what else gets pulled in by that riptide effect. But until we have more data, there's simply no way to judge it's overall health. We don't even know how big this phenomenon is."

"Well, we might." M'Rell corrected, " The Special Anomalies Team has a...promising hypothesis."

Everyone turned to F'Min. Chief Warrant Officer Grade Four, F'Min. The adoption of Warrant Officer grades to denote non-Starfleet mission specialists was a new thing for Starfleet, only 20 years old, but it had yielded wildly successful results in a somewhat short time.

F'Min stood, and at just about 2 meters tall she towered over the assembled staff, and went to the head of the table, tapping a control on her PADD to alter the display. What appeared seemed to be an approximation of a star cluster, though everything was marked in symbols and text.

"My team and I suspect we've entered a dark-matter star cluster."

The room was silent as officers either stared at the display, or began opening files on their own PADDs to read her more detailed report.

"My instinct it to tell you that's impossible but..." Mudell trailed off.

"This _is_ Starfleet." Nog finished for her. And the rest of the staff nodded or murmured in agreement. "So, explain this hypothesis."

F'Min waved her hand and the textual display was replaced with representations of stars and planets, through their colors were muted. "It's a hypothesis that's never been tested, because dark matter nebulae are so rare. We don't even know if Dark Matter is anything like normal matter or even anti-matter, we don't know if it has, for example, elements."

"So we can't assume the existence of something analogous to say..hydrogen, in dark matter?" Nog asked.

"Just so. However, if we were to assume such elements could exist, we could then extrapolate analogues to all the other activities open to normal matter. Fusion, for example. Dark matter fusion."

"Now this is starting to sound like science-fiction." The chief engineer, whipcord lean Idanian of indeterminate gender scoffed.

"We live in space, Kel." said Doctor Zeela Vhall, a joined Trill woman with dark brown skin, and even darker, very dense spots.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Lieutenant Rauviid Kel, asked.

"Lets stay on topic." Captain Nog spoke up before the discussion could drift any further. "I assume you have a plan to testing this hypothesis?"

F'Min motioned to Warrant Officer Grade Two, a Romulan woman by name of Kavell, head of Astrometrics.

"We need to be able to scan dark matter and dark energy." Kavell said casually.

"And how will you do this?" Mudell's skepticism seemed to deepen the longer the discussion went on.

"We're going to invent a dark matter spectral imager." Senior Chief Petty Officer Kuruk answered, just as causally. The head of the Special Engineering Team, a mixed-blood Human-Klingon, could be cocky to say the least, and arrogant at worst. But, he had the 28 years of engineering experience to back it up.

"Oh, just like that?" Mudell asked.

"Chief O'Brien invented the differential magneton scanner in about four hours. Assuming between myself, Lieutenant Kel, and the other special team heads, we can measure up to half his skill, it shouldn't take more than a couple of days."

Mudell looked somewhat dissatisfied with the Chief's answer but the Captain spoke before she could make her displeasure known.

"I always like your style, Chief, get to work on it. I want everyone else looking for alternatives to navigating, and on a way out of this region, just in case." He stood, "Dismissed."


	4. To Reason with the Unreasonable Universe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chief Engineer Rauviid Kel often has difficulty connecting with xyr more social subordinates.

Not for the first time Lieutenant Kel wondered if xe would ever really fit in with the crew of the _Prometheus_. 

"Chief?"

Xyr mind had wandered again. The special project was an unwelcome distraction when added to the social niceties of working with messily social species, especially Humans.  
  
"Apologies. Too many distractions today. This is well done, Ensign Kolisnyk, you have exceeded Starfleet baseline standards in time and and precision. As usual your competence continues to grow." Kel was truly impressed, even if the phrasing of his compliment did not translate well from native Idanian to Federation Standard.

"Oh well, it was a pain to practice. The math feels so clumsy to me, I usually barely meet the standards in warp field geometry." As usual he was humble, but Kel suspected this was due to a lack of self-confidence.

"Then I suggest a different approach from now on." Kel transferred a file from his own PADD to Kolisnyk's. 

"Base Twelve mathematics?"

"Indeed, Ensign. I suspect your mind is more flexible than you suspect, but Base Ten mathematics is not well suited to flexible thinking. I think you will find Base Twelve suits you better, especially now that you are well-grounding in Base Ten."

"Well, anything's better than feeling woolheaded trying to wrap my mind around geometry that doesn't make any kind of normal sense."

"Both have their advantages. But-" Kel glanced at the chronograph, "It is nearly time for our shift to begin. Work through the exercises detailed until next week." Xe rose to leave.

"Uh, Chief?"

"Yes?"

"I really appreciate you taking the time to tutor me like this."

"It is my duty to ensure all the officers under my command reach their full potential, in any way that I can."

"Duty eh?"

"Of course, what else is there?"

"Ah." The ensign's expression changed in a way Kel could not read. Xe had never been skilled at reading alien expressions. The facial expressions of a Human might as well have been wild, meaningless gesticulations to his eyes.

"You will be in command in Engineering today. I have work to complete with Chief Kuruk."

"Right, of course sir. I'll keep us afloat." Kolisnyk straightened noticeable as he stood, and the expression that so confused Kel vanished.

"I know that you will." And Kel left him there, in the far corner of the lounge.

As xe marched briskly along the corridor, Kel could not help but feel relieved. The messy sociability of Humans only increased in one-on-one sessions. Not like Idanian culture at all. There everything was subtle, governed by specific rules. Every vocal inflection, facial expression, flicker of eye contact, was gauged to deliver the precise meaning the speaker intended, and nothing else, without ever really saying it directly. Careless and overly direct speech was rude beyond the pale. Hand gestures were unheard of. Kel longed for the elaborate and graceful exchanges required to give another Idanian a simple morning greeting, but xe was the only one of xyr people here. The only one in all of Starfleet as far as xe knew. The Vulcans aboard were the most tolerable, even if their manner of speaking bordered on offensively direct, it was softened by the necessity of both parties speaking Federation Service Standard.

Xe entered the shared lab that had been assigned to the project. Kuruk's prediction had not yet come to pass, but the team was close to a solution, Kel was certain of that. Th spacious lab was sparsely populated. Only Warrant Officer F'Min and two of her team were there, working quietly. F'Min only nodded as xe entered, she understood xe preferred quiet if it could be had, and motioned to their console to indicate something awaited his attention. Waiting for him was a series of schematics that Chief Kuruk had apparently cooked up in the middle of the night in a fit of chaotic creativity. There was also a note from F'Min that she had assisted his team in hastily assembling a prototype for testing. The images of the thing were a sight to behold. Chief Kuruk varied between mad genius and regimented precision in his work. This was clearly a product of his more manic side, and it would be Kel's job to coax it into something fit to be integrated into the sensor arrays.

It's appearance aside, the resulting function appeared to be elegance itself. Kel, xys mind now focused on the task at hand, could quickly see how Kuruk had solved two of the three major engineering challenges. And the notes from F'Min seemed to provide a path to solving the third, pending Kuruk's test results.

Kell muttered in Idanian as xe worked. 

If Chief Kuruk's genius was in creative design, Kel prided xemself in distributed design. Where Kuruk had stuck the right functions together, Kel meshed the parts, created a few new ones, and began turning it into a piece of equipment that would integrate seamlessly into the _Prometheus'_ systems. With a bit of quiet help from F'Min, whose Technical Idanian was progressing at lest as well as Ensign Kolisnyk's warp geometry studies, they were soon putting the finishing touches on a more complete upgrade to the sensor arrays.

They were sending the design to the fabrication unit when Kuruk burst into the lab and with a shout and gesture that had Kel wincing, yelled "SUCCESS!"


	5. Parting the Fog

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The USS Prometheus can finally see. What they see is astonishing. And a friend arrives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took a while for this to percolate through my brain. Lots of distractions lately.
> 
> Art credit to my friend Tawadi. https://www.deviantart.com/tawadi/art/Jelly-Leviathan-757762349

It had taken three days to replicate and install enough new sensor nodes to supplement the primary sensor net. Even as M'rell prepared for their first test, engineers were still working double shifts to install new nodes in parallel to the rest of the sensor net. First, however, they needed navigation sensors. As it stood the _Prometheus_ didn't dare go to warp in the hopes of eventually reaching the edge of the strange region. Even forming a warp field was out of the question until they could be assured it wouldn't intersect with a dark mass they couldn't see.

Finally, the sensor diagnostics on her console indicated readiness.

"Sensors indicate ready, Captain." M'rell reported.

"Begin progressive range scan." Captain Nog ordered. "We'll worry about calibration once we've got our sight back."

"Aye, sir." M'rell tapped a control and the programmed sensor sweep went into action. "Scanning."

"Put it on screen."

The viewscreen suddenly lit up with a white glare, forcing everyone to blink and squint.

"Applying false color spectrum filter."

The glare faded and was replaced by grainy masses of colors and abstract shapes. 

"It will take time to adjust the program to interpret the data as the resolution improves." M'rell reported. "We've...never tried to 'view' dark matter before."

Nog was rubbing his eyes. "Right. Carry on."

M'rell's tail curled around under her chair, and her ears twitched back in embarrassment as she continued to work.

Slowly, as the resolution improved and M'rell continued to make adjustments to the program, the image on the screen came into focus. Then, as M'rell was focused on making a fine adjustment to the readings of a dark-matter equivalent of the theta-band emission, she heard Mudell gasp. Turning to look at the screen, her breath hitched for a moment and she swore. "Stars and Gods...that...that is a living creature."

"How big is it?" Nog asked. Then, when M'rell answered with stunned silence, "Lieutenant! Sensor reading!" he said sharply.

"Yes! Yes, sir!" M'rell spun back to her console and tried to interpret the readings. "The mass is...fluctuating. Gravitational readings are...not making any sense. Navigator, I need distance and bearing."

"Uh....right. Lets see..." The navigator on duty, a young Human ensign, tore his eyes away from the screen to focus on his own console. "Estimated distance to contact...twenty-four AU. Give or take maybe a million kilometers."

"Then...as this distance..." M'rell began working it out in her head as she entered the data into the computer. "That...that can't be." She muttered as she finished the calculation and asked the computer to confirm. It came back within 1% of the calculation she'd done in her head. "Captain...the main body of that creature at least seventy-fix million kilometers long. The tail must be...at least five AU long."

Yadav spoke up. "Confirmed. Estimated mass...over nine hundred solar masses. Energy reading, seven hundred to twenty-seventh power energy."

The bridge watched the creature in stunned silence. They could see it moving in undulations a million kilometers long.

"Mudell."

"Yes, Captain." Mudell hadn't taken her eyes off the creature on the viewscreen for an instant.

"Do you suppose it talks? We're still receiving those strange signals after all. A creature that big...it could be intelligent."

Mudell suddenly grinned in a way M'rell had never seen. It had to be the kind of gleeful grin only a dedicated exo-linguist could get when faced with the prospect of translating a totally new language.

"Well...I'd need use of the acoustical lab, dedicated processing time..." She began slowly stepping towards the bridge turbolift, "There's a specialist on Officer F'min's team I'd need assigned to me..."

Nog smirked, "Have fun."

Mudell departed, almost but not quite running for the turbolift, grinning.

"You may have to fill in as XO for a few days, M'rell." Nog commented casually.

"Quite understandable, Captain. I feel I am up to the task."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was hours before the navigational sensors were calibrated. And another full day before there was enough data for engineering to begin any useful warp field simulations. As acting XO, M'rell was busier than ever managing the crew while working alongside Chief Engineer Rauviid to get the warp field functioning. Plowing through paperwork she wondered, not for the first time, why she had ever thought applying to the command program had been a good idea. It wasn't too late, she was only second officer and not committed to the command program like Mudell. 

She stifled a yawn ans sipped her tea, returning her focus to the crew evaluations on her PADD. Trapped in a strange region of space or not, the administration of a crew of 800 never stopped. Disciplinary infractions, interpersonal conflicts, team reassignments, shift rotations, as well as commendations, promotion recommendations, and even social events all needed approval or review.

"Uhm...Lieutenant?"

She looked up to see an apprehensive Ensign Yadav standing over her table, mug of coffee in hand.

"Have a seat Ensign."

Yadav blinked, as if she hadn't expected the invitation. M'rell reminded herself of the peculiar nature of Ekosian culture. Having finally recovered from the contamination of the disgraced anthropologist John Gill a mere three decades ago, Ekosians and their Zeon allies had made a point of educating every generation on the mistakes of their ancestors. They also had a peculiar and usually distant relationship with authority figures, and dozens of special procedures to ensure no one could ever attain absolute authority ever again. One of the protectorate's few entries into Starfleet was Ensign Yadav.

M'rell turned her PADD's screen off and set it down, focusing on her subordinate. "What's on your mind, Ensign?"

Yadav took a deep breath and seemed to take a moment to collect herself. She had probably been working up her nerve to do this for some time.

"Lieutenant I don't understand why you selected me for second-chair on the bridge science station. There are at least a dozen more qualified and experienced scientists aboard and I always feel like I'm out of my depth every time things are happening all at once. I don't mean to be ungrateful I just don't want to be holding you back in a crisis or-"

As her speech became more frantic M'rell held up a hand to stop her. Yadav stopped at once.

"First, take a deep breath and calm yourself." M'rell watched as the young Ensign did her best to settle down. When her grip on her coffee relaxed, M'rell continued. "First, it's true there are a dozen more experienced scientists aboard, many of them are more qualified as pure scientists than I am. Each is a brilliant specialist in their own way. But, a bridge science officer is not a specialist. She must be a multidisciplinary generalist who thinks and acts fast. She must be able to provide concise and accurate analysis of any situation at a moment's notice."

"I see you doing that all the time. I don't see how I can help you with that. I do all right with a few subjects but honestly I've never been the best in any field I studied."

"I know. You graduated fifteenth in your class with a specialization in mathematics."

"So... _why_ did you put me on the bridge?"

"Because of your performance on your Kobayashi Maru."

"But....I never took that test."

M'rell smiled faintly, "Ensign, nobody's taken the classic form of the Kobayashi Maru in over 200 years. But in your final semester, during an intense two weeks of random drills, surprise inspection, simulations, and unscheduled examinations, you went into a simulation with your cadet squad and failed miserably. And then, the more you thought about it afterward, the more you started to realize there was no good solution. You were always going to 'fail' that test. But then the month went on, you lost more sleep, and you forgot about it. But your instructors didn't, and their evaluation went into a special section of your file."

Yadav stared at her for almost a minute, and M'rell smiled as she watched the realization dawned on on the Ensign's features. 

"Oh what in the stars.... _how could I have been so stupid_. I hated that simulation! It's been nagging at me for a year now! That was my Kobayashi Maru?!"

"You're not supposed to notice what it is. The Academy works very hard to hide it."

"Those sneaky, no-good, low-" Yadav cursed in her native Ekosian for a few seconds before suddenly stopping and staring at M'rell in horror. "Oh! I am so sorry Lieutenant I didn't mean to offend you."

M'rell laughed lightly, "Don't worry, I shredded three pillows once I figured it out. But, my point is, your instructors were quite impressed with your performance. If that starboard warp coil hadn't failed you might have made it out."

"If...if you don't mind me asking. What was _your_ test like?"

M'rell cringed slightly. "Unexpected transport to a phenomenon field known as the Pinchot Expanse. Lots of gravity anomalies. It wasn't pretty."

"And you selected me for the bridge based on that simulation?"

"Among other things. Quote, 'Outstanding situational awareness and decisive action at key junctures.'. Impressive praise. You may feel out of your depth, but you're keeping your head above water, Ensign. That's why I want you on the bridge. And I don't think it's going too far to say you might have a future there as well."

Yadav flushed slightly and wouldn't meet M'rell's gaze.

"Consider it. Finish out the rotation and then we'll have you spend some time on another team. We have five years, after all." 

"Well...if you're certain, I'll do my best."

"Trust me, your best had been exemplary so far."

"Thanks Lieutenant. Sorry to interrupt your work. I feel a lot better now." She stood to go and paused, "Lieutenant, what made you decide to apply to the command program?"

M'rell considered her answer, "Well, a number of things, encouragement from my superiors, the advice of my wife, other events. Ask Commander Mudell about it some time. She proctored all my tests besides sponsoring my application."

"I'll...try. It's a bit strange for Ekosians to have personal conversations with anyone who has authority over them." And she left.

M'rell went back to her paperwork, calling up the file she'd been working on... 

NAME: Yadav  
RANK: Ensign  
Position: Science Officer - Second Chair  
  
RECOMMENDATION: Promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade, pending six month evaluation.  
RECOMMENDED POSITIONS: Away Team Leader - Special Hazards Unit, Second Shift Lead Science Officer, 

She smirked and wondered why she'd been reconsidering the command track. Watching the younger officers grow up and bloom, that had to be at least as interesting as Starfleet's "to boldly go" agenda.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later...

M'rell's console beeped insistently just moments before the Yellow Alert sounded automatically. 

"Report." Commander Mudell ordered.

"Proximity alert, Commander." M'rell replied, "Appears to be another vessel. The readings are unclear but I _think_ it's a Federation vessel."

Her assessment was demonstrated true when the white hull of a Federation vessel flashed into view, the drop from warp speed sending waves propagating through the strange space they were in.

"What ship is that?" Nog asked as he exited his ready room.

"A.D.F. Pisces, Gryphon-class, Captain Renova Black commanding." Ops reported, "She's hailing."

"Onscreen."

The Allied Defense Force, formed not long after the Dominion War, was a starkly different organization from Starfleet, which had returned to it's exploration roots now that it no longer needed to fill the defense role for the Federation and it's allies. Formed from vessels and volunteer crews drawn from fleets of the Federation and other allied powers, the Defense Force took on tasks that included ensuring the safety of the exploration fleets. Investigating disappearances fell under that mandate. The A.D.F. Pisces itself was a short, aggressive-looking vessel, with an oversize impulse pack, and slim warp nacelles tucked in tight to the main hull and attached to a large wing-like secondary hull composed mostly of armor protecting the rear half of the elongated saucer section.

The captain that appeared onscreen was a tall, powerfully built Orion woman with dark, violet eyes, and flame red hair caught up in a severe bun. The differences between the two Fedetion ships, though aptly demonstrated by the configuration of the ADF vessel, was further impressed upon the Starfleet crew by the captain's uniform and the bridge behind her. Her uniform was black with silver trim, and the similarly dressed officers on her bridge bore no section colors to indicate Sciences, Operations or other distinctions beyond rank. The bridge itself used subdued lighting and the stations had mostly manual controls, seemingly anachronistic buttons, switches and dials, which M'rell knew were designed to maintain functionality even if that station's touch display failed during combat.

"Captain Black, what brings you to our little patch of the galaxy?" Nog asked jovially.

"Your last communication registered a Red Alert right before Starfleet lost contact." The Orion captain's voice was low and rich, and M'rell noticed Yadav shivered slightly at the sound. Crush at first sight, it seemed. "So naturally we investigated."

"But we've only been out of contact for two weeks, I specifically asked Starfleet to give this mission at least thirty days without contact."

Black shrugged, "I generally don't argue orders with ADF command. Maybe Starfleet is feeling paranoid. This is still the Delta Quadrant, and Voyager didn't exactly have a calm and uneventful voyage home, after all."

"I'll have to take it up with command later. But for now, it seems you're stuck here with us. At least until we figure out how to establish a stable warp field in this space."

Captain Black turned to one of her officers and received a nod. "Then we had better hurry. I followed the same contact protocol you did on the way in here."

"Then Starfleet will have registered the automatic red alert when your warp field collapsed?"

"Undoubtedly."

"And how far away is your nearest counterpart?"

"Perhaps 4 weeks."

"Then at least we have time to work before this space starts filling up with trapped starships."


	6. Not Quite "Ha Ha" Funny

The crew did not have four weeks.

M’Rell was assessing a potential warp field configuration when Yadav started muttering to herself. Yadav muttered when she was perplexed by a peculiar problem. She’d been muttering a lot over the past week, but this time she seemed a little bit alarmed.

“Something wrong, Ensign?”

“Uhm… something funny here, Lieutenant.”

“What _kind_ of funny?”

“Uh… might be a problem kind of funny?”

Yadav cast her display to their shared large monitor.

“I’m seeing an unusual cluster of dark matter masses closing on the Pisces.”

“We’ve had these come and go since we arrived. You were the one that finally determined they were truly life forms, and their behavior fits. Just curiosity that’s satisfied once they know we’re not a threat, or food.” M’Rell studied the readings for a moment. “Still, those are moving quite fast compared to the rest. Alert the Pisces science officer. I need to talk to engineering.”

“Kel, how much difference is there between our major systems and the Pisces?”

Kel had looked slightly annoyed as having xis work interrupted but now looked speculative once M’Rell sent the scan data to xim.

“It’s significant. They don’t even use an antimatter annihilation warp core. It’s a singularity drive. Toroid singularity, in fact, the very latest in-“ Xe suddenly looked alarmed. “The dark matter creatures! Tell them to raise their shields immediately!”

Suddenly the Red Alert klaxon sounded and Kel, apparently having sounded the alert, cut off the visual.

“Report!” Captain Nog demanded, emerging from his ready room with Commander Mudell.

“Ensign Yadav detected a large number of dark-matter creatures headed towards the Pisces at high speed. When I consulted with Lieutenant Kel about a possible cause, xe sounded to Red Alert. Pisces has a toroidal singularity core, sir.”

“Pisces has raised shields.” The Ops officer reported. “They’re reporting they did so on Kel’s advice.”

“Put the Pisces on screen and bring shields to full power. We can’t assume the creatures will leave us alone now that the Pisces has their interest.”

Just as the Pisces came onscreen her shields lit up. Bursts of violet, green and red energy arced around the ellipsoidal shield bubble, with the dark-matter false colors super-imposed over standard visual, they could see the dark matter creatures, slamming into the shields and bouncing off, or in some cases bursting apart. After a few hits, the Pisces started moving.

“Pisces is hailing.”

“Audio.” Standard practice during emergencies. The big visual was needed for status data and views around the ship, not for video chats.

“Captain Nog, we’re going to use your technical and scientific progress so far and see if we can evade these creatures.” Captain Black reported.

“Understood. We’ll keep pace with you, see if we can draw a few of them off or block them. We suspect your warp core may be attracting them.”

“I’m not shutting down my warp core. Even if we did the singularity would still be there.”

“I won’t ask you to. But if they havn’t already, our engineers should start collaborating on a way to mask the presence of your singularity from the native life. They may be perceiving a threat, or food.”

“Understood. Looks like full impulse will keep them from hitting our shields too hard.”

“Reduce your shield power as much as you can. We’d rather not cause any more problems than we apparently already are. It may also reduce your wake effects.”

There was a momentary pause before Black responded. “Very well. Pisces out.”

M’Rell could hear Nog tapping his violet painted nails on his chair console as he thought. She’d suggested the violet two days ago, it wasn’t a traditional Ferengi color, but he’d ben very pleased with the effect.

“Thoughts?” He asked suddenly.

The bridge was quiet for a moment as the officers formed opinions and suggestions.

“Obviously we need to leave this space immediately. We can return once a more thorough analysis is completed.” M’Rell, didn’t prefer being the voice of reason, but it had to be said.

“Agreed.” said Mudell, “But we still cannot form a stable warp field.”

“An unstable field might serve well enough. Enough to get out anyway.” The Ops officer, a slender Romulan woman with dark eyes and shaved head, offered.

“A bit too reckless for my taste, but… start the simulations with Engineering. Other options?”

“The Leviathan.”

Everyone turned to Yadav. To her credit she shrank only for an instant under the scrutiny of the entire bridge staff.

“Given the environment, it’s the being most likely to be sapient, and yesterday your assistant mentioned you were close to cracking that language.”

“Oh so _you_ were the- nevermind, that part isn’t important. The point is, she was right.” Mudell turned to Nog. “Captain, we’re very close, but we need priority time on the Quantum Synapse Network to decipher it into something the Universal Translator can use for communication.”

“That’s a power-hungry machine, Mudell. I don’t even like turning it on much less trying to use it during maneuvers.”

“We’re not using weapons.” The Ops officer pointed out.  
“Shut down the holodecks.”  
“We can set shields one third power, maybe one quarter. The creatures aren’t that interested in us.”  
“Do we really _need_ gravity?”

More suggestions poured in and it wasn’t long before the crew was strapped to their stations, every microwatt of power diverted to the usually inert, but always power-starved, Quantum Synapse Network, or QSN.

“Network Online.” The QSN announced in the ruddy gloom. Even the red alert lights had been dimmed.

“Network. In your static memory there is a data stack. Begin analysis.” Mudell ordered.

“Working.” The ship seemed to shudder with the power drain as the QSN actually went to work. “Network is experiencing positive feedback. It is good to be working with you again, Commander Mudell.”

“That’s good, Network. I’m sorry we can’t leave you on all the time.”

“Network is aware of power restrictions.”

“New technology is on the horizon, of course.”

“Network is patient. Analysis complete, data stack assembled for input to Universal Translator. Good night.”

Suddenly the gravity returned and the lights came up as the QSN powered down and ship returned to full power.

“That machine is a little bit disturbing.” Was the comment from the helm.

“Some might find it so, but the QSN is also eminently useful. The UT is assimilating the data-stack, Captain.” Mudell said.

“Very well. Set course for the Leviathan and tell Pisces to do the same. Maybe its presence will deter the small predators.”

“Or it could host a massive biome full of even more dangerous predators.”

It took hours for the UT to assimilate the new language, which was just as well because it took nearly that long just to reach the gargantuan creature. The scale was too grand to comprehend. From a million kilometers the surface of it’s “solid” shell took on the aspect of a planetary surface. Fortunately, it did ward off the predators attacking the Pisces, and while it hosted it’s own biome, the life there seemed uninterested in them.

“There could be intelligent life living on it’s surface.” M’rell mused.

“Dozens of cultures, billions strong. Maybe.” Mudell agreed.

“Captain… there’s… there’s a signal. I’ve never seen anything like it.” The Ops officer reported.

“Is the UT translating?”

“I might need some help. I’ve never used it’s manual functions before.”

“Mudell.”

The Bolain commander nodded and went to the Operations station.

“This is… a hailing request.” She reported finally. “Not like any I’ve ever seen but that’s what it is. It includes all frequency and format requirements, at least.”

“Open a channel.”

“Channel open.”

“This is Captain Nog of the USS Prometheus. We come i-”

 ** _“INTRUDERS”_** The voice of the Leviathan seemed to reverberate through the bulkheads. M’Rell studied her instruments and realized it’s transmission was so powerful it was actually vibrating the hull.

“I assure you we intended no harm to your environment.”

**_“UNDERSTAND. WITNESSED CAUTION. SUBTLE. OTHER INTRUDER. LESS.”_ **

“We did not understand how their systems would affect this place. We are trying to leave and cease our disturbance. We hoped you might be able to help.”

**_“REQUIREMENTS”_ **

“Captain we just received a data request. Looks like it wants specifications on both ships.” Ops reported.

“Send it. And include the standard data stack on Starfleet, the Federation, and the Alliance.”

“Sending.”

“We hope, after we have left and studied what went wrong, that we can return here, as friends, to learn more about this place.”

**_“YES. FRIENDS.”_ **

Suddenly the entire ship lurched, like a sea vessel rocked by a giant wave. The ships instruments went offline, overloaded by data, and when they came back up, the viewscreen and scanners indicated they were once again in the subspace riptide effect that had brought them to the dark matter space.

Later…

“So, you made a friend.” Captain Black reached for her drink, cradling the delicate crystal glass of Romulan Ale in her powerful hand.

“It seems we did.” Nog straightened his simple, yet resplendent violet suit coat. “The Leviathan dropped a massive data stack on us in the same moment it sent us out of the Dark Space. We’re still analyzing it.”

“Reminds me of an early Enterprise-D mission. Godlike beings drawing ships of other cultures to them.” Black leaned back in the plush chair, her outfit of mostly slim gold chain and a few barely opaque strips of light silks clinking faintly.

Nog, being a Ferengi and utterly comfortable with female nudity, was totally oblivious to the display of traditional Orion formal dress. Most of the rest of the crew, those with more modest upbringings were trying not to stare.

“The data we decoded first seems relevant to safely entering and leaving the region.” Said M’Rell, seated comfortably in the lap of the somewhat larger F’Min, both of them dressed as most Catians would be while visiting the home if a friend. Which is to say, not at all.

“And the language is truly astonishing.” Mudell, lounging in her long, thick robe of golden tan and earthy reds, sipped her own drink. “It’s going to feed the papers of a dozen linguists and twice as many data theorists for the next twenty years at least.

Black smirked, “Well I’m glad I could stumble in and stir up the waters a bit.”

“Oh, you’ll be returning with the next expedition I think.”

“That so?”

“Part of the data has a stack listed as ‘Threats’, with linked data for shielding your singularity core, specifically.”

“Then I look forward to it.” Black stood. “Now, dinner was wonderful, but there was a lovely Ekosian who simply couldn’t stop staring when I came onboard.”

“Yadav.” M’Rell informed her.

“I hope you won’t mind if I seek her out?”

“Not at all. It’ll be good for her.”

Black left, powerful, deep green, physique fairly sashaying as she walked out.

“I know you said she leans into the stereo type, Captain, but…” Mudell trailed off.

“Black’s good people, it’s at least forty-percent for show.”

“More importantly, has Starfleet responded to our request yet?” M’Rell asked.

“Well…” Nog grinned… … … …


End file.
